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The programme came about as the result of a suggestion from the station’s Programme Controller – Graham Laycock. As a member of GAS’s Outreach Team I got involved in the organisation of our regular flagship outreach event at Newlands Corner, near Guildford. The last such event was on Saturday 1st April and before that I contacted local media seeking publicity for the stargazing event. This included Brooklands Radio, a local internet station, and I was invited in to the studio for a 10 minute on air chat about astronomy in general and Newlands Corner in particular. The chat seemingly went well, was placed as a podcast on their website – it was subsequently downloaded some 600 times! It’s till available at the time of writing at http://www.brooklandsradio.co.uk/podcasts/GuildfordAstronomical2017-03-29.mp3 As a result Graham suggested I do a regular monthly slot, the first of which has now gone out.

The 30 minute programme is called Stars Over Surrey and is broadcast on the last Friday of the month at 7.30 pm and then repeated the following Monday at 11.00 pm. After that it gets placed as a podcast on their website. The general format is that I work in the studio with Dave Jemitus, one of the station’s regular presenters. With David I cover what’s interested me in terms of astronomical and spaceflight news in the previous month, then my constellation of the month, finishing off with what’s to be seen in the night sky and of local interest for the coming month. The programme is aimed at the general listener, so I try to keep items to a basic level – but even then it’s easy to slip up; for example in April’s programme I said Messier worked in the 1850s rather than 1750s! Aaargh!

In the first programme I also reported on how well the Newlands Corner stargazing session had gone, and told listeners about the Equinox Star Party from which I’d just returned. Surrey’s five astro societies got a mention together with their May meetings – Guildford, Walton, Farnham, Ewell & Croydon. I’ve already contacted these societies to ask them to send me notifications of any events they’d like promoted. The programme can be heard at http://www.brooklandsradio.co.uk/starsoversurrey.html where there is also a splendid image of The Rosette taken by GAS member Martin Baker, and also a monthly set of slides I produce for my Woking U3A Astronomy Group that I use as a prompt for my radio what’s up session. Hope you like it!

John Axtell FRAS

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John Axtell’s latest episode of Stars Over Surrey (July 2018)

By GAS Webmaster on 29th July 2018

John’s Stars Over Surrey from Friday will be repeated tomorrow (Monday 30th July at 11:00pm UK) & is also aailable as a podcast from Brooklands Radio

In this 40 minute episode he talks about water on Mars, the possibility of life on the early Moon, 12 new moons for Jupiter and the first ever imaging of an exo-planet in the act of forming. My constellation of the month is Lyra. There’s a What’s Up for August and of course mention of the Total Lunar Eclipse. The extended podcast will include a further 10 minutes or so, covering Space x, Blue Origins, ESA launches, the possibility of launches from Sutherland in Scotland, Kepler signs off, and the long-ago collision of our Milk Way with a dwarf galaxy. John hopes you like the programme.

For the live episode click here and click on listen live at the top of the page.

John Axtell’s Stars Over Surrey

By GAS Webmaster on 4th June 2018

As John posted the other day, in this episode of Stars over Surrey he talks about the latest Block 5 version of Space X’s Falcon 9 launcher and also mentions Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Mars features quite a bit in both the programme and the extended podcast – InSight Mission, Mars 2020’s Helicopter, Curiosity rover, Phobos & Diemos, – even the current BBC Sci-Fi series ‘Missions’!
The second discovery of an interstellar asteroid gets a mention as does the discovery of Hydrogen Sulphide in the gas clouds of Uranus plus Gaia’s mapping of 1.7 billion stars.
Local Society news is included and also my What’s Up for June.
The podcast also features the Sun’s current paucity of Sunspots and the identification of a rocky asteroid in the Kuiper Belt.

The programme is repeated tonight (Monday the 4th of June 2018) at 11pm. The podcast, my What’s Up slides and a video for my constellation of the month (Bootes) will appear on the Brooklands Radio website soon.

For the live episode click here and click on listen live at the top of the page.

The latest episode will go out on Brooklands Radio on Friday evening at 7:30pm.

The podcast will go online later.

In this issue John talks about the Argentinian astroimager who by chance captured a supernova actually occurring during his imaging run. The first time this has happened.
John then goes on to Space X Falcon Heavy & that Tesla Roadster heading out to Mars.
Gemini is his constellation of the month, then onto What’s Up in night sky for March.

The podcast covers more articles.

For the live episode click here and click on listen live at the top of the page.

The next edition is scheduled for 30th March. Is that a Blue Moon thing, two episodes in the same month!

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John Axtell’s latest The Stars Over Surrey podcast from Brooklands Radio is now available

By GAS Webmaster on 2nd December 2017

In this episode John talks about The Interstellar visitor Oumuamua, Ross 128b an Earth sized exoplanet,
Mars sand flows etc, December’s night sky.
On the Brooklands Radio page is also a link to Youtube for a presentation of Perseus, his constellation of the month.

What’s Up – November 2017

For those of you who use SkySafari, here is a .skylist file with this month’s suggested objects. (Select “Save As…” from the right-click menu on the link to download – the actual wording varies depending on the browser you are using)

What’s Up – October 2017

For those of you who use SkySafari, here is a .skylist file with this month’s suggested objects. (Select “Save As…” from the right-click menu on the link to download – the actual wording varies depending on the browser you are using)

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What’s Up – September 2017

By GAS Webmaster on 8th October 2017

The September 2017 edition of What’s Up is now available for download.

For those of you who use SkySafari, here is a .skylist file with this month’s suggested objects. (Select “Save As…” from the right-click menu on the link to download – the actual wording varies depending on the browser you are using)

5590total visits,7visits today

Report on the SAGAS Summer Convention 2017

By GAS Webmaster on 16th August 2017

Tony Questa has provided a link to a successful convention & a picture of Dr Paul Daniels during his speech.